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There For You by Beth Arritt Copyright 1996
"Mommy!"
Sam sat straight up in bed, jolted out of sleep by the scream.
"Mommy! Mommy!"
She ran down the hall to her daughter's room. Throwing open the door and looking around, she spotted Chloe in the corner, crying. Angel appeared at the door next to her.
"Mommy!"
She ran to her daughter and held her. "Chloe, honey, it's okay. I'm here, I'm here. Shhhhh." Chloe began to calm a little, but still held on to her mother tightly. "What happened, baby, another bad dream?"
"The ma - man was here. Looking in the window." Angel walked across the room to look out the window.
Sam lifted the girl up and took her back to the bed. "It was just a dream, honey," she said, laying her down and pulling the covers up over her. "That's all, just a dream. The storm scared you, and you had a bad dream." She sat on the edge of the bed, smoothing the little girl's blonde hair, so like her own, away from her face. "It's over now."
"But he was here, I saw him." Her daughter was insistent.
"Chloe, honey," Sam tried again, tucking a stuffed animal in the bed with her, "we live on the second floor. It was only a dream."
"Will you look anyway, Mommy?" Chloe clutched the stuffed animal tightly, refusing to look in the direction of the window.
"I'll go look, sweetheart." She rose from the bed and started for the window, hesitating for a split-second when she saw the look on Angel's face. "What is it?" she asked when she reached her friend.
"The window," Angel whispered. "There's a rope hanging by the window from the roof."
Sam looked out the window and saw the rope swinging in the storm outside. "Oh God."
*****
"And you didn't see anyone?"
"For the fourth time, Bailey, no, I didn't see anyone." Sam flopped down next to John on the sofa in Bailey's office. "But Chloe did, and I don't think it was a dream this time."
"She's dreamt about Jack before?" Bailey asked, sitting up sharply in his chair behind the desk. "How? She's never even seen him, has she?"
Sam hesitated, not looking at either of them. "Well... "
"Sam!"
"She drew a picture recently, a picture of our family, before...." She looked up finally to meet Bailey's eyes. "There was a man all in black in the picture. She said he was in the house the night that--" she took a deep breath, "the night that her daddy went away. She saw Jack leave the house, and he saw her. He even told her to be quiet before he left."
Bailey slumped back into his chair. "And she thinks she saw him this time?"
"He's the man she dreams about. She even said she saw him at the window a month ago, but there was no sign of him. At the time I thought it was just a child's dream. Now--it could have been a dream, he could have been out there, I don't know."
The phone on Bailey's desk rang. He leaned forward in the chair to answer, spoke briefly to the person on the other end, then hung up. "Angel's on the phone for you," he informed Sam.
Sam stood, smoothing her skirt. "Thanks. I'll take it in my office. Be right back." She walked to her office, shutting the door and heading for her desk. She picked up the phone as she sat down and pushed the line. "Angel?"
"Sam. How's everything going there?"
"Fine," she replied automatically, pushing her hair out of her face and then propping her head in her hand, leaning on the desk. "How's Chloe?"
"Asleep. Finally. I had to assure her that you would be back first. It took a while, but she calmed down eventually."
"Damn, I should have stayed a little longer. All I was concerned about was keeping her safe from that psycho." Sam laid her forehead flat on the desk and banged it gently a couple of times.
"You did the right thing." Angel told her. "The sooner you catch him, the better we'll all sleep at night, Chloe included. I just wanted you to know she's okay."
"Yeah, thanks Angel. I'll talk to you a little later, okay?"
"Sure. Bye." Sam put down the phone. After resting her head on the desk for a minute, she left her office and went back to Bailey's. The door was partly open, and as she approached she could hear John talking.
"--Bailey, it's the best shot we've had at catching him. If we know where he's going to hit we can be ready for him." Sam stopped right at the edge of the door to listen.
"Yeah, and we've had so much luck so far. Forget it. It's too dangerous."
"We can have a net thrown over that place so tight that if he tries to breathe on the building, we'll know about it. If they can just stay there for a while, he'll come back."
"It's no good. It's too--" whatever he was going to say was lost as Sam opened the door, stepped in, and closed it behind her. John looked up at her from his position leaning on Bailey's desk, then sighed and went back to his seat on the sofa. Bailey looked at Sam a little sheepishly. "How's Chloe?"
"Asleep. He's right."
"Excuse me?"
"He's right," she repeated, gesturing towards John. "It is the best chance we have of catching Jack."
"I don't even want to consider it!" Bailey exploded. "It's too dangerous."
"What did I come out of hiding for?" she demanded, crossing quickly to Bailey's desk and looking down on him, her arms crossed. "I was tired of hiding. Tired of being scared and running. I wanted - *want* to catch him so he can never hurt anyone again."
"And we will catch him, Sam. But not like this--"
"Why not? John's right, we know where he'll go. We can be prepared for him. Besides, he doesn't want to hurt me, not like that. He needs me for his little games."
"Sam--" Bailey started, rising from his chair, but she held out a hand to stop him.
"My little girl had to be thoroughly convinced by Angel today that I was coming home again," she said forcefully. "She's afraid that I will go away, just like her daddy. I will not have her live like that, not when there's a way I can try to stop it! Don't you see? Backing down now will defeat everything I've done so far." She laid her hand on his arm. "I have to stand up and face him."
Bailey stood there and looked at her for a long moment. Finally he threw up his hands in defeat. "Fine. But we're going to have your place covered so tightly that if he sneezes a mile away we'll know it."
"I wouldn't have it any other way," Sam answered with a small smile.
*****
A week later, Sam handed John a cup of coffee in her living room. "Have I mentioned lately that I appreciate your doing this?"
John took a sip of the coffee and smiled. "Don't mention it."
"No, really," she protested, sitting sideways on the sofa to face him. "Staying here, keeping watch from the inside, it's a really generous thing to do."
"Well, it's not like I have anyone at home to mind. The Chinese restaurant might be a little disappointed, but they'll survive." That joke earned a smile from Sam. "Besides, this was my idea, it's the least I could do." They looked at each other silently for a moment. John cleared his throat. "How's Chloe? Off to sleep?"
"Yes, after two stories, she finally went to sleep. I'm hoping it will be dreamless night number three for her."
"And what about you?" he asked softly.
"Me? I never dream," she answered airily.
"I suppose you'd have to sleep to dream," he commented, brushing a finger over the obvious dark circles under her eyes.
Sam stared at him for a moment, then rose suddenly from the sofa. "Well, I guess I'll try that for a change tonight and see if it works. Angel's already gone to bed. I think I'll do the same."
John settled back against the sofa with a smile. "Good luck," he said, the looked off into the distance and took another sip of his coffee.
She paused on her way out of the room. "Aren't you going to bed?"
"In a while. I doubt I'd be able to sleep right now."
She looked at him for another minute, then headed for her room.
*****
Two hours later Sam was tossing in her bed, stuck in a nightmare but unable to awaken. She kept seeing a faceless man dressed in black entering Chloe's window, and hearing Chloe scream, but she could never get to her in time. She was shaking but she couldn't get to Chloe and she couldn't wake up.
"Sam! Sam! Wake up!" She woke suddenly, sitting up so forcefully she almost knocked John off of the bed. She looked around, disoriented, as things fell into place. She realized he had been the cause of her shaking--he was shaking her to wake her from the dream.
"The dream. Oh, God." She threw herself into John's arms and held him tightly as she cried. After a frozen moment he put his arms around her and stroked her back lightly, as if he were comforting a small child. "He was there, he was trying to get to Chloe, and I couldn't save her."
He rocked her slightly, whispering, "Shhhhh, it's okay, it was just a dream. That's all, a dream."
After a few minutes she calmed down a bit and pulled out of his embrace, wiping her eyes with her hands.
"I thought you didn't dream," he said with a hint of a smile.
"I'm sorry," she replied, wiping at her tears one last time. "I got you all wet," she said, wiping at his bare shoulder with her hand, trying to erase the tears she'd left there.
"It's okay," he assured her, taking her hand from his shoulder and holding it with both of his. "I'm just glad you're all right. I was getting ready to go to bed next door when I heard noise from your room, so I grabbed my gun and came to check on you. When you didn't answer my knock, I came in to find you tossing and turning." He picked up his gun from the floor, activated the safety, and tucked it in the back of his jeans with one hand, holding her hand with the other.
"Well, I'm glad you came in. That's one dream I don't want to be stuck in," Sam said with a shudder.
"Are you going to be okay now?" John asked, gently prodding her to lie back down and then pulling the covers up over her.
"I think so," she said sleepily. He smoothed her hair back from her face and she smiled.
"What?" he asked suspiciously.
"Nothing. I was just remembering something Chloe said to me after a bad dream recently." She stopped, but he didn't move, obviously waiting for her to elaborate. "I was comforting her, and tucking her back in, and she asked `Who comes to your bed when you're scared?'" She paused. "It's been a long time since anyone's been there for me. Thanks, John."
He smiled. "Don't mention it." He placed a light kiss on her forehead as he rose, then paused for a moment and placed an even briefer kiss on her lips. He headed for the door, stopping in the doorway to look at her again. She was watching him leave, but he could tell sleep was already reclaiming her.
"Sam?"
"Hmmm?"
"Don't worry. If it happens again, I'll be there."